


Team Deadly Detectives

by TFLatte



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, background taakitz, everyone who sees angus adopts him, i'm scraping together whatever magic stuff sounds vaguely plausible in the finest traditions of d&d, kravkeetz but lowkey, listen krav is competent ok it's not his fault he keeps running face-first into the plot, me making up a lot of stuff about kravitz and his abilities, takes place in some nebulous post-11th hour pre-wonderland timeline, the necromancer-hunting road trip fic nobody asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-09 00:53:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10400100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFLatte/pseuds/TFLatte
Summary: Angus finds an oddity among Kravitz' recent bounties and wants to help investigate. Kravitz figures there can't be all that much harm in letting him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted my favorite NPC boys to hang out. Give me the Kravitz-and-people-who-aren't-Taako content I need it to live.

Kravitz had been looking forward to the end of his latest bounty. He’d promised himself he’d take some time to pay a visit to the moon after he brought in this particular necromancer. It had taken longer than he’d hoped, but finally he’d plucked her soul from the shriveled body she’d been clinging to and freed the spirits she’d trapped around her lair. The Eternal Stockade was one soul fuller, and he’d gently herded the confused ghosts through the rift to where they belonged. The paperwork had been tedious and time-consuming, but at least there’d only been one necromancer; reporting on souls that had been forcibly kept from the Astral Plane was much easier than those that had chosen to fight it.

He stopped for a moment to fix his face; Taako might not mind, but fresh off a job Kravitz preferred not to arrive in full skeleton-formal. Tearing open a new rift he stepped through, placing his feet carefully. Taako’s floor, as usual, was home to scattered trinkets, clothes, and unidentifiable objects everywhere, and while he was pretty sure none of them could actually hurt him, Kravitz didn’t particularly want to, say, break a discarded wand and set off a fireball in the room.

(One of these days he wanted to mention that problem to Taako, but he wasn’t quite sure at what point in a relationship it started being okay to raise questions about how his…well, about how Taako kept his own bedroom.)

The room was empty, and after a moment Kravitz made his way over to the door and peered through it – so was the rest of the suite. Deciding he had nothing pressing to rush back to, he took a seat on the bed to wait for a while.

It was strange, the difference between quiet in the Astral Plane and quiet in the Material Plane. Mulling it over, he drummed his fingers absently against his knees, eyes half-closed. He had just thought of “the quiet alone” and “the quiet with someone” when someone opened the door.

“Taako, sir, are you still-”The boy stopped midsentence, blinking at Kravitz, who was frozen where he sat. A long silence stretched between them.

Finally Kravitz cleared his throat, a little nervously. “Ah. Hello.”

“…Hello, sir. I don’t think we’ve met.” The boy adjusted his glasses, eyeing him, and Kravitz had the distinct feeling he was being sized up.

“No, I don’t think we have.” Kravitz stood and offered a hand, not really sure what else to do. The boy hadn’t run away in a panic, which he was pretty sure was a good sign with children. “I’m Kravitz.”

Another thoughtful look, and then the boy shook his hand. “Angus McDonald, detective.” He stood a little straighter as he added the last bit, squaring his shoulders.

“Angus…oh, yes, Taako’s mentioned you.” Once or twice – every time Kravitz came to see him. Not that Kravitz was actually sure of much about Angus – Taako had an impressive ability to forget details like, for instance, how old his student actually was, having told Kravitz several different ages, ranging anywhere from six to twelve.

Angus lit up immediately. “He talks about me?”

Kravitz couldn’t help but smile. “Occasionally. He’s teaching you magic, isn’t he?”

Angus nodded. “He says I’m getting better!” He paused. “Well, not exactly, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he _means_ , anyway.” He shakes his head, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. “You work for the Raven Queen, right? Taako told me.”

Kravitz blinked. “He talks about-”He cut himself off, clearing his throat. “As a matter of fact, yes. Why?”

“Well, I’ve been doing some extra detective work as a side project – you know, to keep my hand in – and I’d like to get your opinion on something, since you’re here.”

“Ah, actually, I was here to see Taako-”Kravitz began, before Angus cut him off.

“Oh, the Reclaimers left base today for a mission! They won’t be back for at least a few days, probably more.”

Well. That might have been nice to know before he arrived. Kravitz sighed. “I see.” So much for surprising Taako. Still, he had to admit he was curious about this. “All right, then, what’s this detective work you want to ask me about?”

“Well, you see, sir, some contacts of mine have noticed an increase in necromancy-related cases recently.” Angus hopped up to sit on the bed, and Kravitz leaned against it, putting himself more or less on eye-level with Angus. “Particularly those interfering with souls.”

Kravitz frowned. “And you…wanted to ask me why that is?”

“Well, first I just wanted to confirm that there was an increase, rather than just a rash of very careless necromancers. You’d know, wouldn’t you?”

Kravitz hummed thoughtfully for a second. He had been busy lately, but come to think of it, this time of year necromancy usually wasn’t quite so heavy. “Let me see.” He called his book to his hand and flipped it open, aware of Angus watching intently. Leafing through his recent bounties, he did a few quick mental calculations before grimacing and snapping the book closed. “Unfortunately, I have to say I think you may be right.”

To Kravitz’ surprise, Angus actually brightened at that. “I thought so! Do you know why?”

“Not yet, I’m afraid, but I’ll certainly find out. Thank you for telling me, Angus. It was nice to meet you.” Kravitz straightened up, reaching to take hold of his scythe again.

“Wait!” Angus slid off the bed, standing again. “Where are you going to investigate first? I’ll come with you!”

Kravitz blinked. “Ah – I appreciate the offer, but I think I can handle it from here, thank you.”

Angus pushed his glasses up on his nose, looking decidedly unimpressed. “I mean, from the sound of it you wouldn’t have noticed it was even happening if I hadn’t told you.” Kravitz felt that was a little unfair – his job typically ended when he took the souls involved to the Astral Plane. Detective work wasn’t actually part of it.

“That’s not – never mind. Necromancers are dangerous people, Angus, especially to children who start poking around their lairs.”

Angus rolled his eyes expressively. Kravitz was pretty sure he’d seen the exact same look on Merle. “I’ve collared killers before, you know. Ask the Reclaimers – I met them when there was a train murder. And other murders I didn’t even have backup on!”

Kravitz raised an eyebrow. “I see.” That really just raised more questions, but he decided not to start on them. Instead he tilted his head back, thinking. He definitely needed to look into this – there was always a possibility that something was teaching new necromancers, and that couldn’t be allowed. More likely, though, it was just a minor cult. He’d taken apart plenty of those over his career, and he’d gotten pretty good at it.

“Listen, sir, I know what I’m doing. Really.” Angus gave Kravitz a serious look. “It’s not a brag, I really am a great detective. Don’t you think it’ll help to have a seasoned investigator helping you?”

“Not _quite_ the word I would use,” Kravitz murmured. Angus scowled. On the other hand, Angus wasn’t entirely wrong, and Kravitz knew for a fact he’d already cleared out the last lair of undead guards. “Well…okay, if you agree to stay close to me and not mess with anything evil.” As long as he kept an eye on Angus, it probably couldn’t do any harm. Angus perked up immediately, but Kravitz paused as another thought occurred to him. “You don’t have classes, or – homework? That’s something children still have, isn’t it?”

“There’s no homework on the moon!” Angus grinned. “It’s pretty cool! Also I’m kind of teaching myself now anyway, so I can give myself a vacation!”

Kravitz chuckled. “Well, I guess if you’re not skipping out on your responsibilities. I don’t think I can condone that.”

“Nope! I’m very responsible. I have to get my detective kit first though! Then we can go investigate the scene!”

Kravitz stood up straight again. “All right. I’ll meet you outside Neverwinter, then, how about that? Do you know where the latest one was? A dragonborn named Mishea?”

“Yes, but – meet me?” Angus frowned.

Kravitz nodded. “I prefer traveling by rift, and I can’t take you through with me. I’ll meet you when you land.” He smiled down at Angus. “Don’t worry, I’ll find you. Traveling by cannonball isn’t exactly subtle.” Angus gave him a long, searching look, not answering. “Cross my heart?” Kravitz offered.

“I think I’m a little old for that, sir – but I appreciate the sentiment.” Angus nodded, finally smiling again. “I’ll see you when I land.”

* * *

Kravitz spent the wait considering what he actually knows about Angus. It really isn’t much – he was never actually able to ask Taako questions when he started on the subject of his student. Taako always shut down that line of discussion, complaining that he didn’t want to talk about the kid and didn’t know why Angus kept bothering him and his friends. Kravitz hadn’t yet pointed out that Taako was always the one to bring him up, but he’d been increasingly tempted.

Mostly what he knew was that Angus was an oddly young detective, that he could produce an impressive Mage Hand, and that he was very attached to Taako’s group. And now, apparently, that he wasn’t easily intimidated. Though, now that Kravitz came to think of it, he couldn’t be if he had attached himself to Magnus, Merle, and Taako.

Eventually he saw the cannonball and followed, blinking across the distance with quick, practiced rifts until it came to ground. Angus emerged, wearing a backpack with about a dozen pockets and a patch declaring the owner an “Honorary Kid Cop.” Spotting Kravitz as he approached, Angus trotted over, nearly bouncing in place.

“Hello, sir! Ready to get investigating?”

Kravitz mentally added ‘adorable, probably unintentionally’ to his list of Angus Facts. “Of course.” Slipping his hands into his pockets he started in the direction of the house that had briefly concealed Mishea's experiments. Angus trotted at his heel and Kravitz, belatedly remembering that his stride was much longer than Angus’, slowed down. If he was going to have a child detective help him investigate this situation, he might as well make sure not to leave him behind.

“Gosh, I can’t wait! A necromancy case is new to me, I’ve read a lot about them but I’ve never worked on a case like this!” Angus glanced up and caught Kravitz’ frown. “But I’ll be careful, don’t worry about me!”

“I’m still not sure you should be working on this one – but!” Kravitz held up a hand as Angus puffed up indignantly and started to protest. “I said you could, so. It would be a real, uh, jerk move to change my mind now.”

“That’s true, sir.” Angus nodded. Kravitz looked up as they approached a small, nondescript house.

“This is it, isn’t it?”

“Didn’t you say you’d worked on this case?” Angus looked skeptical.

“Well, I only saw it from inside,” Kravitz said, a little more defensively than he meant to. “Like I said, rifts. The only way to travel. As long as you’re, you know, already dead.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense. Can I ask you about those? Later I mean.”

Kravitz considered a moment, but it wasn’t like it would have been possible for Angus to duplicate the effect of a weapon crafted and blessed by the Raven Queen even if he was a full-fledged wizard. “I don’t see why not.” He opened the door and Angus darted past him into the dimly lit house.

A short, stocky tiefling appeared in a doorway and stared at Kravitz. “Hey! What are you doing here? This is a crime scene-”

“Officer Clement!” Angus waved to the man, drawing his attention. “It’s okay, sir, he’s with me.”

“Angus!” Officer Clement brightened when he saw Angus. “I didn’t realize you were in town, you should’ve told me! Especially if you were going to come stick your nose in my crime scene,” he added, grinning.

“Sorry sir, I didn’t realize I would be here until very recently.” Angus shrugged but smiled back.

Officer Clement’s attention returned to Kravitz, and he looked back at Angus. “So, who’s this? Friend of yours?”

“Oh, this is Kravitz! He’s, uh.” Angus hesitated a moment. “He’s acting as my assistant on this investigation!” Kravitz just barely stifled an offended noise – Angus _was_ trying to get him in to find out why so many people had been defying their rightful deaths lately, and it would probably be counterproductive to argue. Officer Clement already looked skeptical enough.

Instead, he nodded. “It’s true. I, uh – have a lot of experience with cases like this.”

“Hm.” Officer Clement gave him another skeptical look. “Have to admit, you look more like a mortician than a detective.”

He smiled faintly at that. Personally, Kravitz was fond of the just-buried suit look. “Dealing with necromancy is – my specialty, officer. I can promise you I’m only here to help. None of us want any more cases like this one.” Even if only one of them had to do the _real_ legwork in hunting down necromancers.

Officer Clement glanced back at Angus. “Well, if the boy detective here vouches for you…”

“ _Detective_ ,” Angus mumbled sourly, before nodding. “Yes sir, I do! I think Kravitz will be a big help in my investigation.”

“If you say so.” Officer Clement shook his head. “Well, you two watch your step down there. My officers have already finished their sweep, and we didn’t find any bodies other than the perp’s, but you can never tell with these places. Wouldn’t want to touch the wrong brick and set off some zombifying beam or something.”

“We’ll be careful,” Kravitz said, nodding, and followed Angus back down into the necromancer's lab.

* * *

It had only been a day or so since he had captured the bounty – time gets confusing when you spend so much of your existence moving between planes – and while he was pretty sure things have been disturbed by the police investigation, it looked to Kravitz like they hadn’t removed anything yet.

“They’re probably waiting for the magic unit,” Angus said offhandedly, standing on tiptoe to peer more closely at the components on a table without touching it.

“Magic unit?” Kravitz echoed.

Angus gave him an odd look. “The investigators who specialize in handling potentially cursed magic stuff. You don’t want your detectives picking up a ring of accelerated decay, that’s for sure!”

“Oh – right. Of course.” Kravitz grimaced. “I don’t remember them having those when I was alive,” he observed as he moved to the other side of the room, a little less cautious than Angus was about touching things – the perks of technical immortality.

“That must’ve been a long time ago, then. They were first established more than four centuries ago!”

“No wonder I don’t remember them.” Kravitz adjusted a skull tipped over on a shelf, carefully righting it before prying open the small chest next to it and looking inside – all it contained were some small but flawless gems, pretty but magic-less, and he put it back. When he looked over, Angus was watching him thoughtfully. “What?”

“How old _are_ you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Guess I aged pretty great, huh? I don’t look a day over three hundred.” He smiled wryly. “By now? I was born pretty close to a thousand years ago.” Angus frowned at him, crossing his arms, and Kravitz blinked. “What? I don’t – I don’t know what that look means, I can see magic but I can’t read thoughts, what is it?”

“Well, it’s just, if you lived a thousand years ago, why do you wear a modern suit? You don’t know that police have magic units, but you know what kind of fancy suits people wear?” He sounded suspicious, and Kravitz, with seven centuries of hunting defiant magic-users under his belt, noted Angus’ hand slipping into a pocket.

“Oh, that.” Kravitz chuckled. “Okay, I’ll admit it, the suits are my weakness. Sort of a family thing. I had siblings, before – well, you know, before dying. I mean, after too, technically, but –”He stopped and cleared his throat. “Anyway. They were always really into fashion, and I picked some of it up, though the black is all me. I think they would have been physically ill if they ever wore fewer than three colors at once.” He smiled, a touch wistfully. “But keeping track of what people are wearing these days reminds me of them. And it’s better for my image. Nobody’s intimidated by a man in the kind of suit we used to wear.”

“I didn’t know you had siblings, sir.”

“I don’t talk about it much.” He was back to being ‘sir’, apparently, which Kravitz thought was probably a good thing. “It’s been a long time since I saw them.” Angus considered him for a few seconds, but whatever he saw must have been enough for him, because he nodded and went back to the investigation.

The basement wasn’t that large, but it was cluttered, and both Angus and Kravitz kept having to pick their way through fallen objects – some having hit the floor in the necromancer’s last-ditch efforts to evade Kravitz. Their searches met at the far end of the basement, where a heavy desk sat, covered in broken glass – Kravitz had made a pretty good entrance on this particular job, and it had spooked Mishea so badly she’d shattered the device in a panic. All that was left were pieces that twisted and bent in odd, slightly nauseating ways.

The drawers had nothing worthwhile in them – some bits of glassware, more spell components, several crystals, and one top drawer contained what was apparently a snack stash. Angus frowned, turning back to look over the rest of the lab.

“There’s something we haven’t found. There has to be some hidden compartment around here!”

“Why? Even if these necromancy cases are related, at least this one could have been an isolated case,” Kravitz suggested, but even to his own ears it sounded doubtful; the defenses on this place had been pretty solid, or his job would have been over much sooner.

Angus shook his head. “No notes! Nobody’s a good enough wizard to memorize everything, especially not with a field as complicated and precise as necromancy. There have to be some secret notes in a secret place here.”

“But if there is one, where would it even be?” he asked, drumming his fingers on the desk. “There’s no magic hiding anything down here. Mishea didn’t have anything on her when I collected her, either.”

Angus hummed thoughtfully, then stopped and looked back at the desk. “Wait. What were you just doing, sir?”

Kravitz blinked. “Just thinking – was the tapping bothering you, or-”

“No, no, do it again – I think I heard something.” Kravitz, shrugging, rapped his knuckles against the wood again and Angus straightened up, beaming. “That’s it! The sound is wrong, let me-”He pushed forward and Kravitz stepped back out of his way. Angus opened the drawer beneath Kravitz’ hand and scooped out several sticks of jerky and a packet of Fantasy Cheezits, placing them neatly on the desk and running his hands along the inside of the drawer. Kravitz watched curiously, and after a moment Angus made a triumphant noise. “I found it! It’s a very well-made secret compartment, but it’s no match for the world’s greatest detective!” He opened the false bottom of the drawer to reveal a leather-bound journal, holding it up proudly.

“Nice work!” Angus’ enthusiasm was infectious, and Kravitz found himself grinning. “You found it because it _sounded_ wrong?”

Angus opened the journal, looking more than a little pleased with himself. “I have _lots_ of experience detecting, sir.”

“I’m starting to believe it.” Kravitz leaned over to look at the journal as Angus frowned.

“This is Draconic – I can’t read it.”

“I’m surprised.” Kravitz held out his hand and Angus handed the book to him.

“Well, I want to learn it, but I’m also trying to learn Elvish and it’s very slow going. But I’ll get there! I want to know a lot of languages, so I can talk to anyone, and detect in any language!”

Kravitz smiled. “I guess there are worse reasons. Elvish isn’t an easy language to learn, either. Draconic is a little more straightforward.” He skimmed through the pages, grimacing at some of the descriptions – it might be a good thing Angus couldn’t read them.

“What’s it say?”

“A lot about experiments that didn’t work, collecting materials – oh, ugh, don’t touch that table in the corner, I wondered about those knives.” _Necromancers_. Every time. Shaking his head, he continued. “Something about…she met someone who taught her how to start doing necromancy that worked. Nothing about them, but she says she was one of their favored students…More experiments, diagrams.”

“Does it say anything about the other students? Or where the teacher was?”

“Not that I see, but – hold on.” Kravitz put the journal down and went back to one of the shelves, pulling down a small jar full of water. Holding it up in front of his face, he focused, staring, and finally caught a glimpse of the familiar shimmer of magic. “I thought so! Look, she mentions taking water from a lake in the same town she met the teacher in, and I think this is the water. I can see magic in it, and if we can identify it-”

“-we can figure out where it was! Good eye, sir!” Angus bounced on his heels. “Can you tell what kind of magic it is?”

“It’s pretty faint,” Kravitz admitted, “but I should be able to work it out.” He put the jar safely into the same pocket dimension that held his scythe. “It might take me a day or two, though.”

“That’s okay, sir. Investigations always take time, that’s how you know you didn’t miss anything!” Angus patted his arm. “Is that everything?”

“Pretty much. Something about finding a name, but that’s pretty common with necromancers – find some fiend’s name so you can summon them, bargain, command them. Or try to command them. It doesn’t usually work out like they hope it will.” He hated having to retrieve souls from fiends. It was always messy, and left him with new enemies mad that he took their toys – but those souls belonged to the Astral Plane, and the Raven Queen wouldn’t allow them to stay trapped in the wrong hands, even if they brought it on themselves. “Looks like they didn’t find it, so that’s one good thing.” He snapped the journal shut again and stowed that away too. “I’d better get to work on this. You can get back to the moon on your own, right?”

Angus gave a long-suffering sigh. “ _Yes_ , I _am_ eleven years old after all.” Kravitz, roughly nine hundred and ninety three years old, chose not to say anything to that. At least it answered one question. “Will you let me know when you get a lead on the water?”

Kravitz paused, thinking for a second. “If you have a Stone of Farspeech, I can get in touch with you.” He holds up his own and Angus nodded, taking a similar stone from his pocket and holding it out. Kravitz attuned the two and put his away again. “I’ll give you a call when I find something.”

“I’ll let you know if I find anything too, sir!” Angus stuck out a hand and Kravitz shook it. “It was very nice to meet you, and to work with you!” He smiled up at Kravitz.

Kravitz smiled back. “The same to you. I appreciate your help, it might save me a lot of work pretty soon.” He stepped back and turned away slightly, then opened a rift home. Glancing back as he stepped through, he watched the rift close as Angus trotted away to make his own way home.

Then he turned back to the Astral Plane and set off. If he was going to track down this necromancy teacher, he wanted it done soon, before they could do anything worse than teaching.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited slightly to fix an inconsistency I missed while I was editing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how bout that episode huh? I'm so proud of my good and precious magic son, and also my moon mom, and episode 60 needs to have my death son being happy and badass and helping save reality.

Kravitz kept track of time passing in the material plane as he studied the magic in the water, periodically interrupting his work to check in. The Raven Queen must have known what he was doing; usually if he didn’t go looking for his next bounty shortly after collecting on one, she’d send him out again, but two days passed with no summons, and he didn’t go anywhere except to dispose of the journal.

Eventually he worked out the signature, though not without a lot of grumbling and some swearing over his false starts. The closest match was a lake not far outside a town called Little Soran. Kravitz straightened, stretching in an old – well, ancient really – habit he had yet to lose. He put the water back into his pocket dimension – he’d figure out what to do with it later. Maybe he could just dump it back into the lake and toss the jar somewhere. Kravitz fished his Stone of Farspeech out of his pocket and tuned it to Angus’ frequency.

He cleared his throat. “Anyone there?” It was more than a little strange to think he was calling for the help of an eleven-year-old. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure it was really a responsible thing to do, either, but...

There was a moment of silence, and then Angus’ voice came through. “Hello?”

“Angus? It’s Kravitz.”

“Oh! Have you found a lead, sir?”

“Yes, the town we’re looking for is called Little Soran. How soon can you get there?”

“I can go today! Maybe an hour?”

“Okay then. I’ll see you when you get there.” Kravitz wondered if anyone was actually supervising Angus or if he was left to his own devices entirely. Granted, he seemed like a good kid, both from what Kravitz had seen and what Taako had told him, but he still had to wonder.

* * *

This time when Angus arrived, Kravitz didn't have to travel far to catch up with the cannonball. Angus climbed out with the same pack, just as excited as he had been the last time.

"Hello again, sir!" he called as he darted over to join Kravitz.

"Hello again." Kravitz waved as Angus approached. "Ready?"

"I'm _always_ ready to investigate," Angus told him, grinning.

"Well, I did some investigating myself while I was waiting. There's a house that practically reeks of necromancy."

"Then what are we waiting for? Which way?"

"Follow me, it's a bit of a walk," Kravitz started down the road and Angus fell in beside him. "And while we're on the way, you should know: I haven't collected this necromancer yet. They're not home right now, but if they show up-"

"-they’re dangerous, _yes_ sir, I know."

Kravitz sighed. “All right, all right. I’m just not used to working with people.” Especially mortal people.

“Well, an important rule is to trust the people you work with.” Angus frowned up at him. “I’m trusting you, right? Even though you did sort of try to kill my friends.”

Kravitz winced at that. “That’s not – okay, yeah, I guess so.” He shook his head. “Just – if they do show up, let me handle it, alright? Whatever ‘it’ is.”

“If you say so.”

* * *

 The house was on the edge of town, not far from the Little Soran train station. Kravitz could see it from a distance with the magic glowing around it. As they approached, he stopped a few feet from the swirling barrier.

"What is it?" Angus stopped beside him, looking up at him.

"I don't want to just walk through these defenses if we don't have to." He reached for his scythe.

Angus yelped. "Wait! People will see!"

Kravitz shook his head. "Not if they're not looking for us already. Watch this." He glanced back, seeing a man and his daughter strolling down the path in their direction. As Kravitz drew his scythe their eyes slid away from him, failing to register the sight of him tearing a gap in the barrier and stepping through. He beckoned to Angus and continued towards the house.

Angus hurried after him and looked back at the two townspeople, who never broke stride or even glanced over at them. "How did you do that?"

"It's a perk." Kravitz put the scythe away as he talked. "They're not looking to see me, so I just sort of…disappear. Part of the background, that kind of thing. Doesn't work with my bounties – they're always waiting for death if they know it or not - but it means I can go where I need to without being bothered by normal people."

"Wow. That's a neat trick!" Angus paused. "Do you know if there's a spell to do something like that? It would be useful to have on my investigations."

Kravitz offered him a smile. "I'm sure you can find something." He strolled up to the door and tried it – locked. He hadn’t expected anything else, but it was still a problem. He looked over at Angus. “You can’t pick locks, can you? That seems like the kind of thing you’d be able to do.”

“That falls under ‘things that make detectives criminals’ so no.” Angus peered at the lock anyway. “I mean, Carey sorta started teaching me, but I don’t have my own tools yet.”

“Worth a shot. Wait here.” Kravitz opened another rift and bypassed the door entirely, turning back and unlocking it from inside.

“Usually I have to climb through a window to do that,” Angus remarked as he stepped through. “Don’t forget to lock it again.”

“It’s weird working with people who locks work against,” Kravitz said lightly, and Angus glanced up and smiled.

“We can’t all be magic reaper men, sir.”

“My job might be easier if we could. Or maybe harder.” Kravitz led the way to the strongest source of magic he could sense, keeping his scythe in hand and Angus behind him.

The room they found had no windows, just several items that had been spelled to produce light. Kravitz took a careful step inside, scanning through the magic around the room. “I don’t see any traps, but let me look at the magic items in here, some of them have some nasty stuff on them. The papers on the desk over there” – he pointed – “don’t have anything though.”

“It’s a good place to start.” Angus nodded and crossed the room, picking up the papers one at a time to examine them. He placed each one down carefully in exactly the same place he picked it up from. Kravitz left him to it and went to his own part of the work. Cursed dagger, probably for sacrifices. Not technically under his jurisdiction, but still not something he approved of. A few magic scrolls, including one of Animate Dead, lay on a shelf – also not good. A scrying bowl – there was something unpleasant attached to that one that he couldn’t identify, and he decided not to touch it.

Something in a drawer called to him as he approached, and carefully he opened it, braced for some kind of psychic effect – and instead he went very still. In the drawer was a ghost trap, the same kind he’d found during the bounty that had started this. It pulsed and flickered and he could feel the confused soul inside. Kravitz muttered an old Elvish curse before raising his scythe, passing it through the trap to break the enchantment.

The trapped soul emerged shakily, still in the shape it remembered from life, a young elf who, if Kravitz was any judge, must have been a new adventurer when she died.

She looked around, frantic, reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there anymore. “Havoc, no! I – where is he? What happened? I-”

Kravitz summoned his book, which fell open, revealing a low-priority bounty, a minor failure-to-arrive. “Vixa Galanodel?”

“That’s me- what’s going _on_?”

Kravitz sighed. Trapped victims were always the worst thing in a necromancer’s lair. He spoke as gently as he could. “I’m sorry. You died-” he checked the book “-three weeks ago.”

“Died? But I- I…oh.” Ghostly shoulders slumped, ears drooping. “I did, didn’t I? That necromancer Havoc and I were hunting.”

Kravitz nodded. “They trapped you here. I need to know: can you remember anything that might help stop them? Anything at all.”

“That _bastard_ ,” she muttered, fist clenching, before looking up. “I’m not sure – wait. I think…I think, before we fought them, I remember finding something, they go to Penrith every week. Some kind of meeting, I think? I’m sorry, I didn’t have time to find out more – but you can stop them, right? I tried, but-”

Kravitz held up a hand, giving her his best comforting smile. “Don’t worry. That’s my job. Thank you for your help.” She nodded, calming again. Her form was starting to fade into the simple, familiar silver orb, outline blurring, so he opened a rift. “It’s time to move on now. I’m sure your friend is waiting for you.”

“Oh! You’re right – poor thing, he must be worried sick.” She drifted towards the gateway, then, just before passing through, hesitated and looked back at him. “Thank you. I don’t know why he trapped me, but-”

“It’s all right. Like I said, it’s my job. Go on.” He waved her through the rift and closed it behind her. One more soul where they belonged – at least that was some tangible progress.

Angus was watching him, head tilted slightly and a thoughtful look on his face. Kravitz frowned. “What?”

“Is that how you usually work?”

Right. If he’d heard the story about Lucas’ lab, he must have gotten a different idea of how Kravitz was on the job. “Well. If I can. I do prefer not going full drag-me-to-hell, you know. I don’t _enjoy_ it.” Well. Mostly. There had been bounties he’d taken a deep satisfaction in hauling across the planes and tossing into their cells. “Taako and his friends were a really weird case.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway. I’m no detective, but that sounded like a lead to me.”

“Secret meetings are usually very good investigating fodder.” Angus grinned. “And the Reclaimers are really just like that.”

Kravitz grinned back. “I’ve noticed.” Then his smile faded as something brushed against his awareness and he turned, extending his senses. Something living had entered the house. “Oh, no. We need to hide.”

Angus turned, gaze darting across the room, and Kravitz realized there was nowhere for him to hide – the tables stood high, the furniture too heavy to move and squeeze behind, and the room was too well-lit. Of all the times for a necromancer to choose practical over aesthetic lighting.

He found the dimmest corner and hurried into it. “Angus, over here, quick-” Angus darted after him and Kravitz swept his cloak around the boy. He was small for his age and the cloak covered him entirely, though he squeaked and tugged it away from his face. “Stay still and don’t make a sound,” Kravitz whispered, and Angus quieted. A quick glance down revealed he’d pulled the cloak back just enough to peek out from, holding it across his face, and he looked up at Kravitz nervously. Kravitz spared a moment to pat Angus’ shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture and then let himself fade again, becoming part of the background, and sent a silent plea to the Raven Queen to grant him safe shadows until he could get the two of them out.

No sooner had he gotten them hidden than the door opened, and a slim, sickly-pale human entered. Kravitz waited, stock-still, praying Angus’ breath wasn’t as loud as it sounded to his ears, and the human looked in their direction – and their eyes passed over the intruders like they weren’t there at all. Kravitz kept an arm around Angus’ shoulders and watched, tense.

The human crossed the room, humming some tune Kravitz didn’t recognize as they went to the table covered in various components, placing a small wooden box on it and selecting various items to put in the box. Kravitz’ fingers _itched_ for his scythe, to deal with them in a real, permanent way, but all he could do was clench his fist and wait. He couldn’t start the fight with Angus here, not if he wanted to get him back to the moon in one piece – even if he didn’t get dragged into it, a stray spell could catch him, and while Kravitz couldn’t know what Angus’ hit point maximum was he’d guess somewhere around “frighteningly easy to kill.”

The two of them watched as the necromancer filled the box, occasionally consulting some list from a pocket, and then clicked it shut. They moved instead to the table where Angus had been investigating papers, flicking through them, and much to Kravitz’ annoyance they were facing the door – he and Angus couldn’t slip out without risking attention.

Then they turned and headed for the drawer where Kravitz had left the newly-emptied ghost trap and his eyes widened as he started silently urging Angus towards the door – as soon as they realized their trapped soul was gone they’d start looking for a culprit and then-

Angus pulled out his wand, pushing the cloak further back and pointing it towards the back of the room. Kravitz recognized Minor Illusion just before it fired off and a noisy scratching started up against the bottom of the wall, seizing the necromancer’s attention. They jumped nearly a foot in the air, snatching a crystal focus out of their pocket and creeping towards the noise, their back to the door as Kravitz and Angus scurried out and down the hall. Neither of them dared to make a sound until they were out of the house entirely.

“I’ve never had quite such a close call before.” Angus’ voice was shaking, just a little. He hadn’t left Kravitz’ side yet. “Are you alright, sir?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” Kravitz glanced down at Angus; he was still holding tight to the edge of Kravitz’ cloak. “You should stay close for a while longer. I can hide us quicker that way, if I need to.”

Angus nodded, relief tinging his voice. “Sounds like a plan! But also we need an investigating-plan and not just an escaping-plan. Do you know how far Penrith is?”

Kravitz frowned thoughtfully. “Not all that far, but still not close enough to walk.”

“We don’t _have_ to walk, sir, we live in the future.” Angus pointed, and Kravitz followed the gesture to a passing train.

“Oh. That works, I guess.” Kravitz eyed the noisy vehicle as it fades into the distance. “Well, my boss is always telling me I should find new experiences.”

“…the Raven Queen?”

“She’s not as scary as you’d think, actually. You just need to know her for a few centuries.”

Angus gave him a _look_. “Oh, well, if that’s all, sir.” Kravitz chuckled and Angus cracked a smile too. “You’ve never been on a train before? No – rifts, and also a thousand years old, I guess not.”

“You know, when you say it I sound old.”

* * *

 

They were halfway across the platform to the ticket booth when Kravitz, seeing the price board, stopped. “Angus.”

“Yes, sir?” Angus looked back at him.

“I’ve just realized the snag in this train plan.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t have money.”

Angus paused. “I thought you were a bounty hunter.”

“I don’t, uh, actually get paid in gold. I get paid in time. And I don’t really think I can exchange days spent on the material plane for a ticket.”

“Oh. That is a snag.” Angus frowned. “But it’s okay. Merle pretends to forget his wallet sometimes when I go to Neverwinter with him, and makes me pay for my own ice cream and stuff. So I always bring mine.” He patted Kravitz’ arm. “And as the world’s greatest detective, it’s my job to look out for my assistant!” He winked and Kravitz laughed.

“Well, I’m glad to have you on this case, then.”

Angus nodded, looking satisfied. “People always are.” Then he trotted up to the ticket counter, where it took, by Kravitz’ count, fifteen seconds for him to thoroughly charm the elderly lady running it. He returned with two tickets and a piece of candy. “Our train is in ten minutes! Our ride is gonna take two hours though.”

“I’ve had worse.” Kravitz shrugged.

“Me too.” Angus hopped up onto one of the benches on the platform and Kravitz sat down beside him. “On the bright side, our odds are very much against having to solve a second Grand Relic-related train murder, so that’s nice!”

“Yes – wait, what?”

* * *

 

By the time Angus was done recounting the story of how he first met Taako, Merle, and Magnus, the train was pulling in.

“…and then I started getting curious about certain people disappearing without a trace, and when I’d really started getting to the meat of that mystery, I got recruited!”

“…That’s, ah. A very impressive story, Angus.”

“It’s in my top three mysteries!” Angus nodded, sliding off the bench to his feet.

“Only top three?” Kravitz rose as the train stopped, doors opening to release a trickle of passengers – Little Soran apparently wasn’t a very popular destination.

“The Siren Gang was pretty good too. They were very nice ladies, except for the highway robbery.” Angus led him onto the train and along the cars until they found an empty one. He plopped down into a seat by the window and put his backpack at his feet, tucking it carefully under the seat beneath him. Kravitz took the seat across from him. It was only a few minutes before the conductor came through to collect their tickets. Angus put the stubs in his pocket and settled in again, feet dangling above the floor. The sight made it hard for Kravitz to forget that he was so young.

“It sounds like you’ve done a lot of detective work,” he began.

Angus gave him a keen look. “Do you mean in general, or for my age?”

Kravitz held up his hands. “Well, I guess for all I know, eleven-year-old ace detectives are common these days.”

That got a smile. “Not really. It’s a very exclusive club, because there’s only me.”

“How did you start that club, anyway? I still haven’t quite figured that out.”

“It’s all thanks to my Caleb Cleveland books, actually!” Angus beamed.

“I’m not familiar with those, I have to admit.”

Angus’ eyes widened. “Oh, they’re the best! I learned practically everything I know from Caleb Cleveland!” He pulled his backpack out from under his seat and fished a well-worn paperback out of it.

“Did you have that with you just in case someone asked about it?” Kravitz couldn’t quite keep his amusement out of his voice, but Angus didn’t seem to mind.

“Oh, no, it’s just my favorite one and I wanted to keep it with me, but if anyone ever has questions about Caleb Cleveland I’m their boy!” He held out the book, showing Kravitz the cover. It featured a young boy with glasses a lot like Angus’, holding a magnifying glass up to a map as an indistinct shadowy figure crept up behind him, and a title in bold font: _Caleb Cleveland: Kid Cop – The Case of the Marked Map._

Angus continued, pulling the book back as he gestured excitedly with it. “After I started reading them I learned how to solve mysteries, and I realized I was really good at it! And people liked it when I helped them by solving their mysteries or catching their bad guys so I had to keep doing it, and now it’s just what I do! I love it!”

“It shows,” Kravitz remarked, and Angus smiled.

“What about you, sir? Why did you decide to work as a bounty hunter?”

“Oh – well, there weren’t any kid bounty hunter novels for me. I was going to conduct orchestras – well, I wanted to. Some things came up.” Kravitz grimaced a little, remembering that last long period of illness. Angus definitely didn’t need to know about that. “And then I died, and thought – what am I supposed to do now? And the Raven Queen came to me and offered me a chance to work for her instead of spending my eternity among memories like most souls do.”

“It does sound like an exciting way to spend your afterlife!”

“I mean, I’ll be honest, the novelty does wear off. I still have all my senses and the undead _smell_.” He pulled a face and Angus giggled. “But the Raven Queen’s a pretty good boss. I’ve worked for worse.”

Angus nodded. “Oh! Do you have any cool cases you can tell me about?” He leans forward excitedly. “There has to be something, right?”

“Hmm.” Kravitz leaned back and considered, a smile playing across his lips. “Well…I guess there’s a few…”

Angus swung his feet back and forth, eyes fixed on Kravitz. “Come on, sir, don’t keep me waiting!”

“Alright, alright, how about a deal? They tell me you’re supposed to be able to make deals with death.” Kravitz winked. “We can trade stories. I’ll tell you about one of my bounties, you tell me about one of yours. Your cases, I mean. I don’t think you get bounties for yours.”

“Well, rewards, sometimes, but that sounds fair! I already told you one story though, so now it’s your turn.” Angus popped the candy he’d gotten from the ticket lady into his mouth.

“Alright, let me see – oh, I know. Let me tell you about this lich I tracked down in the Wide Wastes…”

* * *

The two-hour ride went quickly. Both of them had a host of stories to trade, and with the train car empty of anyone but them – and each of them positioned to see the entrances in case people passed through – they didn’t have to worry about drawing attention as Angus described how he’d helped the Rockport police track down a wizard who’d set a ghoul loose on the city or as Kravitz talked about being summoned by death cults.

As the train pulled in, Angus slipped his backpack onto his shoulders again, hopping out of his seat. “So what do you think our next move should be?” It sounded less like Angus was asking the question, and more like he was prompting a student.

“Find out where this meeting is supposed to be. If we’re lucky we might catch them in the meeting and find out something useful.” And if they were really lucky, he might be able to finish this all at once.

Angus nodded, pleased, and led the way off the train, taking hold of Kravitz’s sleeve as they emerged into a crowd on the platform. “That’s right, sir! We’ll catch these bad boys yet!”

“Between the two of us, they should just give up now,” Kravitz remarked, and Angus grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact, Vixa is a D&D character of mine. Havoc is her boar companion. She actually did die thanks to necromancy, if in a somewhat different fashion than in this fic, and one of these days I mean to recycle her into a new campaign.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY I am so sorry it's been weeks hasn't it? Sorry!! I'm trying, honest. Stuff comes up though, you know how it is. If it helps, I think this one is a bit longer than the other two. Fingers crossed I can get the next chapter out in a more reasonable timeframe. Hopefully it won't fight me as much as this one did.
> 
> That said, currently the plan is one more chapter, plus possibly an epilogue. We'll see how that goes.

It turned out Penrith was frustratingly popular with magic-users.

“It’s no good.” Kravitz shook his head. “If there’s necromancy around, I can’t tell with all the enchantment. The ol’ magic nose is useless here.”

“That’s alright, sir. I don’t even have a magic nose. Now you get to see how the world’s greatest detective does things!” Angus beamed. Kravitz chuckled.

“I can’t wait.” He fell into step beside Angus, following his lead as the world’s greatest detective trotted along the sidewalk, looking around thoughtfully, then led the way into a small bookstore. A bell chimed above the door and the clerk, an elderly half-elf, looked up.

“Welcome, welcome!” she called, smiling and setting down the book she’d been reading. “Can I help you two find anything today?”

“Actually, ma’am, I was hoping I could ask you some questions, please?” Angus stood a little back from the counter, so he could see the woman. Kravitz hung back a few steps, watching curiously.

“Well, of course, what can I help you with, young man?” She leaned on the counter, looking down at him. “Is this a school project?”

“A personal project, actually, but it is pretty important!” Angus smiled at her. “I’d like to know, has there been anything strange going on in town lately? Or just outside of it?”

“There’s always something strange going on, dear, you’ll have to be a little more specific than that.” The woman chuckled.

“Yes, that’s fair, there is a lot of magic here, isn’t there?” She nodded, smiling and Angus continued, “But I mean strange for here. Noises, or smells, or lights where people don’t usually practice magic?”

“Oh, well, I usually keep myself to myself, dear. Everyone’s neighbors do something a little odd, we get along because we don’t make much of a fuss about the odd enchanted bin or conjured pets, you know.”

“Oh, I understand that, ma’am, that’s very fair. But I’m not going to spread around any gossip or anything.” Angus leaned forward a little and lowered his voice. “We’re from out of town, and we’re looking for some people we know who came here. It really is important, ma’am, I wouldn’t be bothering you like this if it wasn’t.”

The woman glanced over at Kravitz, who smiled a little sheepishly. He shrugged, and she smiled, winking at him before looking back at Angus.

“Of course, but you’re really not bothering me, dear. Still, if you’re looking for some friends of yours I’ll do my best to help. Now let me see,” she looked up at the ceiling, drumming her nails against the counter. “Well, the Imzels always have some odd conjuration going on weekends, but they seem to have it under control, so I’ve never pressed. And last week I did see some odd glowing out above the trees out east, never did figure out what that was about. And Ella next door is always doing some kind of abjuration, but goodness knows why that means there’s all that noise going on in the mornings. Does that help?”

Angus glanced back at Kravitz, who considered a second, then nodded. He looked back at the woman and smiled. “Yes, I think so! Thank you very much, ma’am, have a very nice day!”

“You too, dear. You come back if you’re ever in the market for any books, you hear?”

“Yes, ma’am, I’ll remember!” Angus held out a hand and the woman shook it, smiling. “Goodbye!” He and Kravitz left the store, Angus waving a last goodbye to the clerk before turning his attention to Kravitz.

“That was quick,” Kravitz remarked.

Angus shrugged, looking pretty happy anyway. “It’s easier when they’re nice.”

“What do you do when they’re not? There have to be some people who aren’t intimidated into talking by your glasses and fancy hat.” Angus eyed him and Kravitz winked. After a moment, Angus smiled back.

“Figure out how to make it sound like they get something out of helping. And like they lose something if they don’t.”

Kravitz blinked. “Huh. That’s very clever.”

Angus nodded. “So we’re checking the glowing, right?”

“The glowing sounded very relevant.” Kravitz nodded.

The woods the woman had mentioned weren’t far outside of town, maybe half a mile at most. As they made their way into the trees, Kravitz began to feel faint wisps of magic from further in. He turned his attention that way, only half aware of Angus falling into step behind him as he tracked the unmistakable creeping sensation of necromancy.

Halfway there, Kravitz put out an arm and Angus stopped. “Hold on a minute.” He focused and concealed runes came to light under his stare. “Stay back, alright? There’s a magic trap there.” He pointed.

Angus glanced at the ground, but he couldn’t see the runes. “Can you identify it?”

“It’ll release a zombie on anyone who triggers it. I’d better deal with it now – can’t have anyone else stumbling across it and getting a face full of undead.”

“You’re going to disable it? Is dispelling necromancy one of your Raven Queen powers?” Angus brightened, looking up at him eagerly.

“Well, no, that’s, uh, not really my style. I was thinking more just set it off and kill the zombie.” Kravitz shrugged.

“…that doesn’t seem very subtle, sir.”

Kravitz looked at Angus and hefted his scythe, seven feet tall and crowned with a raven skull, swirling with the intangible energy of fate.

“You make a good point.” Angus stepped back. Kravitz turned back to the runes. They seemed pretty standard, and he tapped the point of the scythe against one. It glowed brightly, and then a line of magic zigzagged into the air, splitting like lightning into three prongs. The magic began to take shape, rapidly expanding. Kravitz groaned aloud and remembered at the last second the eleven-year-old behind him.

“Oh – beans.”

Three zombies stumbled out of what must have been the Ethereal Plane, and two immediately grabbed for Kravitz. He wrenched away from their grip and tore the mockery of life out of their rotting limbs. Then he whirled, eyes widening as he saw the third lunging for Angus-

-who whipped a hand crossbow from concealment beneath his backpack, spent two precious seconds aiming – Kravitz summoned his magic again, lifting his scythe to swing – and fired. The bolt sank into the zombie’s eye and it went limp. Angus scrambled back as it fell forward, snatching a second bolt from his pack and fitting it into the crossbow, but the zombie lay still. After a long, motionless silence, Angus looked up at Kravitz as he hung the bow from his belt again.

“I told you: I’ve done this before.”

Kravitz took a few more seconds to find words, blinking slowly. “I guess you have.”

Angus nodded, apparently satisfied, and looked back at the zombies. “At least we know we’re getting somewhere if we’re finding deathtraps.”

“I think I’d prefer a nice sign saying “Necromancy Cult This Way,” but whatever works, I guess.” Kravitz smiled wryly and stowed his scythe again. “Let’s keep moving. We should have at least a few hours before they get here, but first we have to find their meeting spot.”

“Why do you think we have a few hours, sir?” Angus looked up at his quizzically.

 “I’ve been hunting necromancers for centuries, Angus. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that groups of necromancers _always_ meet in either basements full of candles, or at midnight in dark spooky forests. It’s their natural habitat.”

Angus brightened. “Oh, like bad guy gangs are with abandoned warehouses.”

Kravitz laughed. “I mean, I guess? I think those are your area, not mine.”

“Sometimes,” Angus said, with a conspiratorial air, “when I have cases I just go investigating in any warehouses I can find to save time tracking my bad guys.” Kravitz mimed zipping his lips, which got a grin out of Angus.

They fell back into companionable silence for a while. Kravitz drummed his fingers against his leg as they walked, musing on zombies and runes, until Angus spoke up.

“Something on your mind?”

“Oh – just thinking.”

“Yes, sir, that is what having something on your mind is.”

“Very funny. I’m just thinking that that zombie trap was a lot stronger than it should have been.”

Angus frowned. “It only took one round to kill them, though.”

Kravitz shook his head. “That’s because dealing with necromancy is my job. It was never going to be _hard_ to deal with them – but there were three of them. That means it had to be at least a fourth-level spell.”

Angus paused for a moment in mental calculation. “That’s a pretty solid caster, sir.”

Kravitz gave an acknowledging hum, still frowning. “Still. We might be able to deal with this whole situation tonight, if we’re lucky.” Angus glanced up at him skeptically, but didn’t say anything.

Eventually, Kravitz could see the glow of necromantic magic through the trees, and the two of them emerged into a clearing.

Angus went to examine a stump, touching it curiously and brushing some fallen leaves off it. “This was cut down.”

“I think they made their own meeting place.” Kravitz considered the rune on the ground, and then glanced over to make sure Angus wasn’t about to step on it. He couldn’t quite tell what it would do, but luckily Angus was keeping his distance, though Kravitz still shifted to move between it and Angus. Then he glanced up at the trees around them. “Angus? How’s your climbing?”

Angus followed his gaze, then grinned. He took two steps backwards, then dashed forward and swarmed up one of the trees, managing to latch onto the lowest branch and haul himself up onto it, then turning to look down at Kravitz. “It’s pretty good, sir.” He sounded unmistakably pleased with himself.

Kravitz shook his head. “What if I didn’t mean you had to climb a tree? What then, Angus?” Angus just laughed. “Further up, though. We want to be out of sight.” Angus nodded and started climbing as Kravitz began to follow him up. His physical form still had weight, even though it wasn’t exactly flesh anymore, so he wasn’t nearly as quick a climber, but he managed. Angus watched him from overhead, occasionally moving up a branch. A few times he pointed out a better handhold, and finally Kravitz managed to pull himself up onto a solid branch and settle.

“High enough?” Angus asked, coming down from the branch he’d been waiting on to sit next to Kravitz.

“It should be.” Kravitz shifted his weight a little closer to the trunk, one eye on Angus. The tree was old and sturdy and should hold them without a problem, but just in case he wanted to be ready to grab Angus if he started to fall.

“You’re sure this is the right place, right sir? If we miss the meeting that’s going to make everything really hard on us, and it’s possible this place was cleared for another reason.”

“Well, there’s also the magic symbol down there under the leaves. That’s part of it.” At that Angus leaned over to look again, squinting in the dim light, and Kravitz reached out to steady him. “Careful. You won’t see it, unless – have you learned Detect Magic yet?”

“I’ve been working on it, let me-” Angus, brow furrowed in concentration, gestured with his wand and muttered the spell. He looked towards the ground again, then winced and pulled back, blinking. “Oh, I see it. It’s strong, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s weird too.” Kravitz, a little more used to the light, eyed the magic glow with a frown. “It _could_ be that they’ve just drawn and cast it a lot of times.”

“Maybe.” Angus looked doubtful. “It looks like some kind of secret rune.”

“That’s true. A modified concealment spell, maybe. It would explain why these necromancers have stayed hidden so long.”

The two of them fell silent again, watching and waiting. Angus swung his feet back and forth and Kravitz leaned on the tree, occasionally humming a snatch of music that came to mind before going quiet again.

The dim light turned to darkness. Moonlight just barely filtered through the trees, turning the ground into mottled shadows. Occasionally a darker shadow would move below them, some creature passing by on its nightly business.

Finally, Kravitz saw a larger shape making its way towards the clearing, one too tall and upright to be another animal, and sat up straighter. Angus tapped his arm and pointed, indicating another just entering. Kravitz nodded and pointed towards the one he’d seen before catching himself – Angus was human, it was too dark for that. Instead he took Angus’ arm and guided it to point out the other approaching figure. Angus nodded. The second figure looked to have about the same build as the necromancer from Little Soran.

The two figures came to stand on opposite sides of the symbol and circled it slowly. Kravitz could see magic flowing from both of them, following the invisible lines on the ground, making the shapes pulse brighter and brighter until even he had to shield his eyes. Then it flared once, blinding, and then settled to a steady glow. After a moment, Kravitz lowered his arm, glancing at Angus, who hadn’t seemed to notice – his Detect Magic had faded hours ago, and his gaze was fixed on the two standing below them. They had finally stopped, and stepped forward to meet in the center of their symbol.

The taller figure spoke in a low, rough voice. “Mish-” They broke off, catching themselves. “The second should have been here.” It sounded like they might have been injured, somehow, though the hooded cloak they wore made it impossible to tell.

“Yes. Something is wrong.” The second figure’s voice was gravelly.

“Time is short. We cannot fail Him.”

“I know. Another day and it will not matter. The planes will align and we will have the name.”

Kravitz frowned, leaning forward, wishing they would be less vague. What name? Or whose? Whoever they were, they had a deadline – good. If whatever they were doing could be disrupted long enough, the planes would shift back out of alignment. From there it might be millennia before they returned to the same position.

“You know your duties,” the shorter figure told the taller. “No mistakes.”

“No mistakes.” The taller nodded. “Orcus will reign.”

“Orcus will reign,” the second echoed. Kravitz sat bolt upright, leaves rustling around him. Angus looked at him, straining to see in the dark. The two necromancers looked around, then up towards the tree cover. Kravitz reached out with one arm and grabbed Angus, his scythe appearing in his other hand. Then he tore open a rift below his feet and slid off the branch to drop through it, pulling Angus with him.

* * *

 

Kravitz stumbled out of a rift not far outside of town. As he let go of his scythe he could feel his hand shaking; it was an unfamiliar, and very unpleasant, sensation.

“Sir? Kravitz, what’s going on? That was – that was the astral plane, wasn’t it?” Right. He was still holding Angus, he’d almost forgotten. “I thought you didn’t want to-”

“No time,” Kravitz managed, setting Angus down. “We didn’t have time to waste.” It had been a bad idea – terrible, in fact, one he was already regretting. More than that, he was regretting that he’d agreed to let Angus come with him in the first place.

“Because those two-”

“Not here!” Kravitz prayed that the two in the woods had been the only ones left who were involved in this, but he knew he couldn’t count on that. “Come on. I saw an inn in town, let’s go. Now.”

Once they were safely behind walls, Kravitz checked first to make sure there were no spy spells in the room. Only once he’d made sure no one was listening did he turn back to Angus, sitting on one of the beds and frowning at him.

“Are you going to tell me why you broke your own rules _now_ , sir? Is it because they were talking about Orcus? I know I’ve read that name somewhere, but I’ve read a lot of names.”

Kravitz sighed heavily, rubbing his face with one hand. “He’s a demon lord – a _powerful_ one. And he wants to overthrow the Raven Queen to take over death. Those servants must be looking for a way to do it.”

“Oh.” Angus blinked, wide-eyed. “Well. Then I guess we’d better stop them, huh?”

“No. _I’d_ better stop them. _You_ are going back to the moon.”

Angus jumped to his feet. “What? No! I’m part of this too-”

“You’re a child!” Kravitz snapped. “I’m not bringing you into this, do you have any idea what-”

“You wouldn’t even know about it if I hadn’t told you!” Angus glared right back at Kravitz, arms crossed. “And I’m not a baby, I’ve been doing detective work for years! I can handle it!”

“You don’t know what you’re- ugh, I don’t have _time_ for this,” Kravitz groaned. “We’ll talk about this when I get back. If you’re not going to go back to the moon, _stay here_ and keep the door locked.”

“Back? Where are you going?”

“To ask that ‘second’ of theirs a few questions. I think I know-” Something tickled at his forehead and Kravitz broke off to swipe at it, irritated.

“There’s a feather in your hair.” Angus pointed. Kravitz went still. He felt for it and drew out a black raven feather, and all his frustration drained away, replaced by a hollow pit in his stomach.

“…oh.” Kravitz swallowed hard, staring at it. Angus glanced between him and the feather, frowning.

“Are…you okay, sir?”

“I thought – well.” Thought She’d give him more time, thought he could at least finish with this before he’d have to answer for it. He shut his eyes for a moment to collect himself, then looked at Angus and crouched down to his level. “Listen to me. Stay here, and if I’m not back by morning, go back to the moon.”

Angus bristled. “I-”

“ _No_ ,” Kravitz cut him off. “If I’m not back by then, I’m not _coming_ back. So go back to the moon, get in touch with Taako and Magnus and Merle or whoever you can think of who can fight these people, because you’ll be the only one left in the Material Plane who knows they need to be stopped, and we don’t know how many of them are left. Do you understand?”

Angus hesitated, looking back at him, then nodded. “I understand.”

“Good. That’s good.” Kravitz forced himself to speak evenly as he rose. His scythe returned to his hand and he took a step back, turning away.

Angus caught his sleeve as he did, and Kravitz looked back. Angus hesitated for a second before he said “I know you have to go, but – come back, okay sir?”

Kravitz paused, then smiled as warmly as he could manage, though from Angus’ expression it must have been weak. “I’ll do my best.” He patted Angus’ shoulder and Angus let go, stepping back so Kravitz could open another rift and step through, hoping against hope he could keep that promise.

Hoping the next time he returned to the Astral Plane, Angus wouldn’t be with him.

* * *

 

Kravitz emerged into the Astral Plane with an uncharacteristic pang of dread. There was a lot that could go badly for him right now, and he was keenly aware of all of it. 

The Eternal Stockade loomed on the horizon, containing both the necromancer he needed to talk to and, possibly, an empty cell waiting for him. She hadn't sent another bounty hunter to fetch him, which he hoped was a good sign and not just Her wanting to question him personally before imprisoning him. Either way, he knew better than to go to the Stockade first. Whatever fate She had in mind for you, you didn't keep the Raven Queen waiting. 

Kravitz crossed over the Astral Sea, feather still in hand. He couldn't help noticing it didn't feel any different than those he used when he needed to ask for Her guidance. Occasionally over his career he'd been summoned, but he’d never been this afraid. 

Darkness closed in around him and he felt the familiar brush of chill winds as he passed through to the Raven Queen's own home. His fingers curled tighter around the summons as his queen appeared – no, he reminded himself, not appeared. She had been there all along; She always was, when you came to speak to Her. It was just that She had faded into view at last, allowing him to see Her.

Kravitz bowed his head, dropping to one knee. "My queen." He felt the same way he had the first time he'd met Her, a single insignificant note beside a symphony. 

"Kravitz." He couldn’t read Her voice, and trying to read Her masked face would be as futile as always. 

He didn't lift his head as he spoke, aware of the slight tremor in his voice. "You wished to speak to me?"

"Yes." She gazed down at him. "You brought a living mortal into the Astral Plane before his time, through my own doorways, and returned him to the Material Plane."

Kravitz squeezed his eyes shut. "Yes. It – it was my mistake, I panicked. I have no excuse. I'll accept whatever punishment you give me." He bit off the rest of the words that wanted to spill out – _this is_ my _fault, Angus didn't do anything wrong, don't punish him for it._ He thought she might have heard them anyway.

He heard a soft sigh, a cool breeze brushing past him. "Oh, Kravitz. You do seem to find all the difficult cases lately, don't you?”

At that, he dared to look up. “I don’t do it on purpose, my queen.”

Amusement – or he thought so, anyway. “No, of course not.” She grew unmistakably more serious again. “But you know that I cannot allow this to go unanswered.”

It took a lot of effort to maintain his composure. Changing forms in front of the Raven Queen had always struck him as a little rude, and that was the last thing he wanted right now. “Yes, my lady.”

“My rules exist for a reason. You know this as well as any of my servants.” She moved like water flowing, circling around him, a cresting wave ready at any moment to come down upon him. “However, I have been watching your...investigation.” Of course. He wondered if she’d known what was going on before he had or if she’d simply been enjoying the entertainment. “I know you have discovered a plot against me. It must not be completed.”

“Of course.” Kravitz nodded. The Raven Queen was, despite the fear She struck into mortal hearts, fair above all. No one was beyond the reach of death – even if She had to send Her servants to claim them. For a demon to take over – Kravitz shuddered.

“You will return to the Material Plane and put an end to these servants of my enemy, and to their plans. This must be done without delay.” She looked down at him impassively. “I will not tolerate failure in this, Kravitz.”

Oddly, that was almost a comfort. If there was a way for him to screw this up, there was a way to get it right. “I understand, my queen. I won’t fail you.” He bowed his head again.

“When you have finished, return to me. We will discuss the consequences of your actions.”

Less comforting. “I will.” Before he could think twice about it, he looked up again, instinctively searching for answers. “My lady? About Angus-”She held up a hand and he went silent again.

“We will discuss this when you return, and not before.” He wasn’t sure, but Kravitz thought the Raven Queen might have emphasized that _you_ , just a bit. “Now, return to your work.” He nodded and stood again, but as he turned to go She spoke again. “And, Kravitz?”

He turned back. “Yes, my lady?”

She tilted her head, just slightly, as she looked at him. “This will not happen again.”

He bowed. “No, my lady. Thank you.”

A nod. “Go.”

He went.

When the Eternal Stockade came back into sight, Kravitz had more or less finished mentally sorting through that meeting. It had gone better than he’d hoped – but then, if time was running out that might have meant there just wasn’t time to send someone else out to deal with this.

Either way, it didn’t matter. He had a job to do, and a worryingly literal deadline. Kravitz crossed above the Astral Sea, careful not to disturb any souls lost in memory near the surface, and entered the Eternal Stockade, his mortal face fading to bones. The Stockade was the most real, present thing in the entire plane, and infinite in a way that would have made a living mortal’s head swim. It usually left new bounty hunters and other servants of the Raven Queen dizzy too, until they adjusted and their minds stopped trying to make sense of things the same way they had in life. Kravitz absently trailed his fingers along the wall as he walked, the hallways twisting and guiding him until he reached the cell he was looking for. Inside hovered the soul of his most recent bounty, and Kravitz drew himself up and put on his best impassive-reaper air, scythe in hand.

“Norixious Mishea.” He extended his power to give the soul a sharp nudge into taking her mortal form again. The silver orb grew again, reshaping itself into a brass dragonborn.

“What do you want? Wasn’t killing me enough?”

He hated it when they acted like _he_ was the dick for enforcing the natural order. “You were already dead. I’m here because I know about your little necromancer friends, and I know who your master is. Was.”

Mishea froze, then glared at him. “I’ve got nothing to say to you.”

“I think you do. You can start by telling me about their plans.”

“Unbelievable. Why would I tell you that?” She sneered. Kravitz sighed and leaned back against the wall.

“You know you’re not the first people to try this, right? It happens every few thousand years or so.” She eyed him suspiciously and he continued, gesturing one-handed with his scythe. “Obviously it hasn’t worked yet, so, uh, history isn’t on your side, for one thing.”

“That’s your argument? ‘It hasn’t worked before so it can’t work now, so help me defeat your master?’ Seriously?”

“I’m not done, alright?” Kravitz glared. “But speaking of your master, let’s move on to that. You think he’s a good boss? Think he’s got good postmortem plans for his servants? He doesn’t. I’ve seen what kinds of things happen to them.”

“I’ve been loyal-”

“No, you’ve been a _failure_.” Kravitz leaned forward, resting the end of his scythe on the ground and letting it take his weight. “Just for the argument, let’s say that your little cult succeeds. Let’s say they all get rewarded beyond their wildest dreams. You weren’t part of that. You _died_ and you’re not going to get in on that immortality action or whatever it is he promised you.” He tilted his head slightly, watching Mishea. “You think a demon lord is the forgiving type? For someone who failed so badly the Raven Queen found out about his plans?”

Mishea opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her eyes darted back and forth and Kravitz waited. Let her have a minute to think about what demons did to souls.

“He wouldn’t be _forgiving_ if I betrayed him, either,” she said at last.

Kravitz snorted. “If you do, then I get to wrap this whole thing up nice and neat, everything stays the way it’s supposed to be. No demons allowed in the Astral Plane – and,” he added with a sudden burst of inspiration, “I might even mention this to the Raven Queen when I tell her how I did it. Put in a good word.”

She stared at him for a minute, unblinking – it was creepy, and he wasn’t sure if she could do it because she was dead or because she’d been dragonborn. His skull didn’t give away any of his thoughts, though, and finally she sighed.

“Fine. Fine. I don’t- I’ll tell you. Fine.”

“I’m listening.”

“There’s this ritual, okay? He told us it would divine the Raven Queen’s true name to him. That that was the key to overthrowing her, and it only works when the planes are aligned like they will be soon, and that there’s only one chance, it’ll be millions of years before they’re right again.”

“Tell me about the ritual.”

“Well, he didn’t tell us how it worked, just how to do it, okay? But there’s this chalk circle, that’s the important part. During the ritual it’ll let an aspect emerge, part of him will be on the Material Plane. But until he’s all the way through he’ll need the circle, it has to be intact or he’ll lose the connection. If you can disrupt that while he’s coming through – not just break it, but put the magic out of balance too – before then, it’ll stop the whole ritual.”

He nodded, straightening up. “When is it happening and where?”

“There’s an empty house in Penrith, on the edge of town. In the basement, there, moonrise the night of the solstice.”

Kravitz sighed. “Of course. Of course it’s the most over-the-top dramatic-”Mishea gave him an incredulous look and Kravitz caught himself. Moonrise on the night of the solstice – less than a day away. No wonder the Raven Queen had been in a rush. “Thanks for your help.”

“Don’t ever say that to me again,” Mishea muttered. “And keep your end of the deal. Tell Herself that it’s me who got you there.”

* * *

 

Kravitz returned to the room where he’d left Angus to find the boy detective sprawled on the bed, snoring tiny snores. His glasses were askew and his cheek pressed against the bottom edge of the pillow. It was approaching sunrise and, after working out how much time they’d have and taking another look at the sleeping Angus, he sighed. Might as well let him sleep – they at least didn’t have to go far, and it gave Kravitz time to think. He leaned over and carefully took Angus’ glasses off, setting them on the table, and sat at the foot of the bed, one eye on the door – just in case.

A few hours later, Angus stirred, yawning, and sat up. He rubbed his eyes, squinting as he looked around, and Kravitz looked over.

“If you’re looking for your glasses, they’re on the table there.” He pointed. Angus squinted at his hand for a second, then nodded and leaned over, feeling around the table until his hand closed around a lens. Kravitz remembered suddenly that he was still a skeleton, and hurriedly pulled his face on. Angus polished his glasses on his rumpled shirt before putting them on again.

“Good morning, sir. Is, uh, is everything okay?”

Kravitz wondered how long Angus had been sitting up waiting before he fell asleep. “I, uh, got an extension on that talk She wants to have. Those cultists are carrying out their ritual tonight, when the moon rises.” He paused, looking at Angus. “I guess there’s no way I can get you to leave and let me deal with this?”

Angus sat up straight, frowning. “No, sir! I’m gonna finish what I started. A good detective never quits!”

Kravitz couldn’t help but smile a little. “Another Caleb Cleveland lesson?”

Angus grinned. “Of course.”

“Right. Well, this is going to be really, really, _really_ dangerous and it’s really irresponsible of me to be letting you come with, but I can’t sneak you through a rift again to get you back to the moon and we don’t have time to argue about it.”

“Secret necromancy cult rituals are good for something, then.” Angus looked far too smug.

“Please don’t grow up thinking that, that’s exactly the kind of thing I have to reap people for.” Kravitz shook his head. “If you’re coming, though, you need to follow my lead when this ritual goes down. If I tell you to do something – hide, run, whatever – do it. For all I know a human sacrifice is just what the demon lord ordered. So I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing and listen to me, okay, Angus?”

Angus looked up at him, then held up his little finger. “Yes sir. Pinky promise.” When Kravitz just looked at him blankly, Angus gave the sigh universal to put-upon children dealing with ignorant adults, picked up Kravitz’ hand, and curled the finger around Kravitz’s own little finger.

Kravitz paused, then decided that was probably good. “Okay then.” Angus relinquished his hand and nodded. He picked his backpack up from the floor and pulled out a set of clean clothes, shaking them out and then trotting behind the privacy screen in the corner to change. After a few minutes, he emerged, straightening his hat and folding the old clothes to put them away. Then he hopped back up onto the bed and turned to Kravitz, looking determined.

“So what’s our play, sir?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im lov the raven queen


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The finale. And sooner than the last chapter took, too!

“We only have until sunset to figure this out, so here’s the thing. We need to break the circle once the ritual’s started. I can deal with the cultists after if I need to, but the circle is the big thing here.”

Angus hummed thoughtfully. “Penrith isn’t a big town, their guards probably won’t have much anti-magic stuff on hand, they probably won’t be much help. Let’s see. Magic circles usually have to be made fresh for rituals, so they probably won’t have painted it,” he offered. “What are they going to use though? Blood?”

Kravitz grimaced. “Hopefully not, but we can’t rule anything out. If they’re more professional than we thought, they’ll probably just use chalk – most rituals, the material of a circle doesn’t matter as much as the magical intent.”

“That could help us then! Chalk’s easy enough to smear – or, can you dispel magic? I haven’t learned it yet, but-“

“No, we can’t be sure that’ll disrupt the ritual, once it’s started the circle’s not just chalk with a magic frosting, we can’t just smear it or dispel magic, it has to be disrupted magically and physically at the same time, there has to be something we can do-

“Produce Flame – I can throw the fire-”                                               

Kravitz shook his head. “Won’t work, it’s a spell but the fire is just normal fire, it doesn’t have magic in it-”He broke off, eyes going wide. “Wait-”He plunged a hand into his pocket dimension, and his fingers closed around smooth glass. He pulled out the jar of magic-infused water and grinned triumphantly at Angus. “This’ll do the trick for sure.”

Angus looked between Kravitz and the jar, wheels turning in his head, then grinned. “Oh, I see! Magic and physical! That’s perfect, sir!”

Kravitz looked at the jar, then held it out to Angus. “I think, if we’re going to do this, you should be the one to break the circle.”

Angus blinked up at him, then took the jar carefully. “Why’s that, sir?”

“We’ll only have one shot with this – you can get closer than I can. I can keep them busy while you sneak up on the circle.” And as long as Angus stayed down, any of the necromancers who might get away from Kravitz wouldn’t see him, so they couldn’t try to find him to get revenge later. “Just whatever you do, don’t cross the circle, understand? Until the summoning is done, the aspect is going to be trapped inside, but if you cross it, he might be able to grab you. Just throw the jar if you have to, but _don’t cross the circle_.”

Angus looked back and Kravitz and nodded, looking determined. “I understand. I won’t let you down, sir.”

“I know, Angus.” Kravitz managed a smile, though he wasn’t sure how genuine it looked when he kept thinking of ways this could go wrong. He wondered if this was how his brother and sister had felt when he was Angus’ age.

* * *

 

The next few hours felt agonizingly slow, Angus alternately writing in his detective notebook and pacing around the room as Kravitz just waited, conscious of the tense air in the room. Around noon Angus excused himself for a few minutes, returning with food. Kravitz’ surprise must have shown, because Angus said quietly “I am a growing boy, sir.” Despite that sound logic, though, he only picked at the food, and after a while he left the plate on the dresser, napkin folded neatly beside it, and went back to pacing. Kravitz was more surprised that he’d eaten any of it.

Finally, not long before sundown, Kravitz straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the wall. “We’d better go.” Angus, who had turned to look at him as soon as he moved, just nodded.

Halfway there, Kravitz put his cloak around Angus to let them both fade, and Angus wordlessly shifted to walk closer to him. Penrith might have always been this quiet around sunset, but it still felt to Kravitz like the entire plane was holding its breath, waiting. Less than an hour to go before somebody’s time ran out.

The house itself didn’t look like the kind of place where a demon lord might be summoned. Maybe that was why it was a good choice. The only word that would really describe it would be ‘nondescript,’ at least for anyone who wasn’t as attuned to the feeling of necromancy as a servant of the Raven Queen was.

The door was locked, and Angus glanced up at Kravitz, then looked around, slipped out from under the cloak, and climbed into the bushes around the house to hide. Kravitz nodded and stepped through a rift, emerging behind the door to an elaborate series of heavy locks. It took a minute to undo them, but as soon as he did Angus clambered back out of the bushes and darted through the doorway, then helped ease the door shut again. By silent agreement, they left it unlocked and made their way deeper into the house.

Kravitz followed the sense of magic to a door, and Angus pressed his ear to the crack between the door and frame for a moment before pulling back and giving Kravitz a thumbs-up, opening it carefully. It revealed a staircase down into a basement that had clearly been modified. Someone – not professionals - had expanded and dug it out. Kravitz and Angus traded looks and Kravitz mouthed ‘ _told you_ ’ as he gestured downwards. Angus shrugged, but he cracked a tiny smile, which Kravitz figured was some kind of success. They leaned over the stairs, and Kravitz counted three people moving around below them. There was a circle chalked in the middle of the floor – not a perfect circle, someone had freehanded it. _Amateurs._

The cultists were busy arranging various items around the room – largely, from the looks of it, dead items. He glimpsed what was definitely a pile of bones covered in dry skin and something unpleasantly red and glistening before a scraping sound drew his attention. One of them was kneeling by the rough circle and drawing symbols and runes with the infinite care that hadn’t gone into the circle itself. Angus grimaced, looking away from it, and Kravitz patted his shoulder. Angus glanced up at him and nodded, then looked back over the basement, putting a hand on the jar. Kravitz kept his eyes on the circle – the twists of the shapes were less uncomfortable for him to look at, and he went back over what he knew. Everything he could see seemed consistent with a genuine summoning, and he shook his head. It would’ve been nice to find out this had all been some silly misunderstanding and they’d really been talking about some ordinary necromancer with delusions of grandeur and a name to match.

They counted seconds as they waited, occasionally glancing at the door, but if there were more people involved in this, they didn’t arrive. Finally, though, the circle was complete and the three Orcus worshippers gathered. One knelt by the circle, hands pressed to the floor on either side of them as they began to chant. Another began to pace a slow circle around the first, and around the circle. The third circled in the opposite direction, around the circle and both others. Kravitz stood up, stepping back towards the wall. Angus made a move to follow and Kravitz made a “stay here” gesture. Angus frowned up at him and Kravitz shook his head, motioning towards the floor below them and then hefting his scythe. Understanding dawned on Angus’ face and he nodded. Kravitz made his way soundlessly down the steps, leaving Angus crouched and peeking over the edge to watch.

Kravitz ached to leap out of hiding and take out all three of the cultists, but instead he watched, blending into the shadows, as smoke began to form in the circle. With it came an awful stench of rot, and he quickly glanced up, catching Angus’ eye, and held his nose. Angus blinked, then sniffed once, grimacing as he covered his mouth and shuddered, then followed Kravitz’ lead.

Orcus worked with undead. The reeking smoke was enough for Kravitz to think he was coming through, and he loosened his grip on his form, face fading away to bone. He positioned himself carefully, waiting as the cultist walking the outer circle drew closer. They faltered briefly as they passed, looking towards the motion of his scythe, but didn’t quite have time to register it before it passed through their chest and separated their soul from their body. He caught the body and lowered it quietly to the ground, then shoved the soul through a rift and into a cell – he’d check if it was actually bound for the Eternal Stockade later. If not, well, someone could let them out.

The second necromancer took a moment to realize something was off. Their steps slowed as they looked for their compatriot, and Kravitz loomed behind them – or rather, would have loomed, if they hadn’t been taller than him. He sighed – the theatrics on the job weren’t necessary, but he _liked_ them, and he shook his head as they turned around in time to see his scythe swing again. Catch, lower, rift. He’d had worse jobs before. Maybe if he could wrap this up quickly and cleanly it would look better for him. He’d at least feel better.

The last one hadn’t noticed anything strange, and their chant was tapering off. Kravitz snatched their soul as well, tossing it into the Stockade with the other two, and then looked up into a pale, desiccated, animalistic face.

Apparently the summoning moved faster than he’d anticipated. Kravitz just barely kept from looking for Angus. His job was to run distraction – he had to trust that Angus would make it, not draw attention to him. He drew himself up, planting his scythe on the ground, and looked Orcus over. Most of his form was still smoke; it swirled and twisted, flattening against the invisible walls of the circle. It had begun to pull into a vague shape around where his torso would be, but at the moment his head was the only solid part of him.

“You know, I was really expecting you to be taller,” he remarked as casually as he could.

The aspect grinned, baring fangs that had no business in a face so much like a goat’s. “One of the Raven Queen’s little thieves.”

Kravitz frowned. “Thief? I’m a bounty hunter.”

“All dead are _mine_.” His shoulders were growing more solid, the smoke continuing to shape a body. “Your goddess steals them.” His grin widened, splitting his muzzle nearly in half. “Think I’ll turn her into a worm for her own vermin to eat when I get her name.”

Kravitz bristled. “You’re not turning anyone into anything. We won’t let you. That’s why She sent me.”

“Wouldn’t be standing here talking if you could break the circle, would you?” Orcus’ legs were beginning to form in the smoke.

“Well, uh, you don’t know what I’ve got up my sleeve, do you?” Kravitz forced himself not to look at the small form moving just behind Orcus.

“Nothing. Got nothing.” His teeth, Kravitz noticed, were half-rotted.

Angus had stopped creeping forward and was wrestling with the jar. His fingers kept slipping on the lid as he struggled to pry it off, and Kravitz heard a small but distinct grunt as Angus tried to get it open. Orcus stilled for a moment, and Kravitz’ mind was suddenly a flurry of panic as the demon began to look back.

If he turned he’d see Angus-

-demons _remembered_ -

- _he’d want revenge_ -

Kravitz lunged forward, thickening his accent. “Oi! I’m talkin’ to you-” He let his hand just cross the circle and Orcus took the bait. Grinning through rotting teeth he seized Kravitz’ arm.

“Maybe I’ll keep you alive long enough to see your queen die. Maybe not – I’ll have time to think about it-”

Kravitz, suddenly very full of regrets, dug his heels in, trying to yank his arm back. “No, no, get _off_ me-”Acting on instinct, he brought his scythe around, though demons had no souls for it to claim. Orcus laughed, reaching up to catch the blade in one hand as Kravitz reached out to the Raven Queen, pleading for her aid just _one_ more time – and the moment it made contact with his hand, shadow erupted from the weapon and the demon howled in shock and agony, the smell of burning flesh overpowering the rotten stench around him. Kravitz wrenched his arm free and stumbled backwards, eyes wide as he stared at the scythe, and under the sound of Abyssal curses glass shattered. The shadows cleared. Broken glass and water smeared several symbols of the circle chalked on the floor.

Orcus, solid to the knee, stared at it for half a second before throwing his head back with a roar. “ _No_!” Recoiling from the noise, Kravitz saw Angus clap his hands over his ears with a wince.  His cloak whipped in winds he couldn’t feel, and before Orcus could do more than open his mouth for another bellow the wind struck him, first scattering the reeking smoke in the circle, then unraveling the rest of his body into more smoke that vanished into nothing.

There was a long moment of silence as Kravitz and Angus watched the empty circle, but nothing happened, and finally Kravitz sagged, letting out a sigh of relief. “I think it’s over.” He pulled his face back on.

“Me too.” Angus relaxed too. Then he looked up at Kravitz and beamed. “We did it, sir! We won!”

“We did, didn’t we?” Kravitz smiled back. “That was a good throw. Very dramatic. Maybe a little sooner next time though?” He winked and Angus smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry sir. It was closed _really_ tight. In my defense though I didn’t think you were going to slip into the circle when you very specifically told me not to though.”

“Okay, yeah, that one’s on me.” Kravitz shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea. For a few seconds.” He looked down at the circle and began dragging his foot across the lines, leaving the symbols indiscernible. Angus watched him for a second then followed suit, and soon the summoning circle was nothing but a vaguely round mess of unrecognizable chalk.

“It still kinda smells,” Angus observed, waving a hand in front of his face.

“Yeah, that’ll happen. You’d think egotistical archfiends would be a little less fragrant, huh.”

Angus looked over at the bodies on the floor and frowned, glancing back at Kravitz. “Should we do something about them?”

“They _were_ trying to summon an evil demon god,” Kravitz pointed out. “I’m not super jazzed about getting involved in some kind of murder investigation for saving the world.”

“Yeah, okay, I guess that’s fair. I’ll call in a tip after I get home so someone finds them before they start to smell too.”

“That’s probably a good idea.” Kravitz nodded, but once he went home – well. “Let’s go. I don’t think you can call a ride back to the moon from in town.”

He and Angus made their way out of the house, Kravitz stopping to lock at least a few of the locks before catching up with Angus outside. Nobody gave them a second look as they left town. Angus led the way out to a field some distance from Penrith before activating the bracer.

“It’ll be a few minutes before the cannonball gets here.” He looked up at Kravitz, serious. “You have to go back to the Raven Queen now, don’t you?”

Kravitz sighed. “Yeah. I do.”

Angus frowned, rocking on his heels for a minute. Then he abruptly stepped forward and hugged Kravitz tightly. Kravitz froze for a moment, and Angus let go. Kravitz crouched down to Angus’ level, reached out, and pulled him back into a proper hug.

“It’s okay, Angus.” Kravitz patted his shoulders gently.

“Is she still going to punish you?”

“…probably,” Kravitz admitted. “I did break the rules. But I told you: she’s not cruel. I’ll be okay.”

“…if you say so.”

“Listen, tell you what.” Angus pulled back to look at Kravitz quizzically, and he smiled back. “If I can, I’ll try to get in touch with you and let you know what happened. Maybe I’ll even be able to visit and tell you in person. Okay?”

“Okay, sir.” Angus gave him a hesitant smile. Kravitz let go and stood again. Angus was quiet for another moment, before saying “We did win this one, so maybe she’ll go easy on you.”

Kravitz smiled wryly. “Here’s hoping.”

They were quiet for another minute, and finally the cannonball arrived. Angus looked up and smiled. “Goodbye, sir, and good luck.”

“Bye, Angus. Take care of yourself. And – time is a little weird when you hop planes like I do, so it might be a while before I can talk to you. Try not to worry, okay?”

Angus nodded, then climbed into the cannonball and waved as it took off. Kravitz waited for a few moments, watching it go, and then sighed. Time to face the music.

* * *

 

Returning to the Astral Plane was a little less stressful than it had been the last time, but not by much. She was waiting for him as soon as he arrived, though, so he had much less time to dwell on what he might have to fear.

As the Raven Queen loomed out of the shadows, Kravitz knelt once more.

“Your report.”

“It’s finished. We interrupted the summoning and sent him back to the Abyss. I sent the summoners’ souls to the Eternal Stockade to be held until I could check where they were meant to be. And Angus McDonald returned home to the moon.”

“Good. The summoners may remain where they are.” She looked down at him. “Is there anything else?”

“If I may, I did have one question?”

“What is it?”

“Well – my scythe. When I hit Orcus, it – well, you were watching, weren’t you? You saw the shadows and – it’s never done anything like that before. I was just wondering…what happened there?”

The Raven Queen was silent for a few moments. When she did speak, her tone left no room for protest. “Do not concern yourself with it.”

He bowed his head. “I understand. I meant no offense.”

“I know.” Her tone softened slightly. “And Kravitz...I would appreciate it if you would refrain from attempting to feed yourself to archfiends in the future. For my sake, if nothing else. Replacing you would be an unpleasant chore.”

Kravitz had spent enough time in the Raven Queen’s company to hear the smile behind the mask, and he couldn’t help smiling back. “Yes, my queen.”

“Good. You cannot always rely on strange and mysterious blessings, after all.” Kravitz didn’t have time to ponder that remark before she continued, growing serious again. “Now. There is one thing left to discuss.” She lifted a hand and a book much like his own bounty book, but much larger, took form in it. The pages rippled and flipped to a page he couldn’t see. “There are a great many reasons why I do not permit my servants to bring mortals into the Astral Plane.” Kravitz nodded, waiting. “And, given your record, I am _greatly_ surprised that you were one to break that rule.”

Kravitz winced. “I know.”

The book snapped shut with an ominous thud. “Understand, Kravitz – should this happen again, I _will_ see you join your bounties, regardless of your previous service. The boundaries of life and death are not to be trifled with.”

“Of-”He swallowed hard, bowing his head. “Of course, my queen.”

“With that said, I have chosen a suitable punishment.” The book faded into the darkness around them.

After a moment of waiting, Kravitz looked up to see Her watching, waiting. “Uh – what is it?”

The shadows curled around Her like affectionate cats as She extended a hand and told him.

* * *

 

“Hello?”

“Angus? It’s me, Kravitz.”

“Kravitz! I’m glad to finally hear from you, how are you? What happened with the Raven Queen?”

“Well, that’s kind of a story. If you have the time, I can tell you in person?”

“That sounds good, sir! When?”

“Whenever you have the time – it’ll only take me a few minutes to get there.”

“I just need to finish a little work first, how about five?”

“Five is fine with me.”

* * *

 

When Angus answered the door, Kravitz was glad to see he didn’t look any different – human aging happened so fast, it couldn’t have been very long. He hadn’t sounded any different on the stone, either. On the other hand, the way he lit up meant it had probably been more than a few days, too.

“Hello, sir! Gosh, it’s good to see you again!”

“Hello, Angus. It’s nice to see you’re doing well.” Kravitz smiled back. “How long has it been?”

“A little more than two months, sir. What happened? What did the Raven Queen decide to do? Actually, hold on, let me get my shoes. I’ll show you around the moon and you can tell me!”

“Sounds good to me.” Kravitz leaned against the wall as Angus hurried to get his shoes on. Once he’d emerged and shut the door, he turned back to Kravitz, smiling brightly.

“So what happened? Did she let you go with a warning?”

“Well, not exactly. First off, I had a list of bounties a mile long to chase down. She’s been running me ragged – I think there’s a whole new wing of the Stockade thanks to me.”

“You do look kind of tired, but it seemed rude to bring it up.”

“Thank you.” Kravitz chuckled. “I’m sorry I couldn’t call to let you know I wasn’t going to be locked up,” or sent to bring Angus back, “but she also took my Stone of Farspeech. I don’t actually need it to contact her, and apparently she decided I needed to focus on my work, not on my mortal friends.”

“So the Raven Queen…grounded you?”

“That’s really not the word I’d use for it.”

“She _grounded_ you.”

“Well, if you want to look at it that way-”Kravitz broke off at Angus’ mischievous grin. “Alright, alright. Yes, she grounded me.”

“So you got grounded and you had a lot of homework? That was your punishment?”

“Well, not entirely. See, the thing is, one of the reasons we’re not supposed to bring mortals to the Astral Plane is because sometimes, people decide it means they get to ignore the rules, and then they go all power-mad and it’s a whole _thing_. So, I’m kind of supposed to be… well, your supervision, now. I have to make sure you don’t decide, like, ‘hey now I make the rules about life and death’ or anything like that.”

“I didn’t really plan to, but I guess that makes sense!” Angus paused. “So does that mean you have to keep checking on me?”

“It seemed like the best way to do it, yeah.” Not to mention the best way to make sure the Raven Queen’s other pronouncement – that it would be Kravitz’s responsibility to deal with if Angus did go bad – never became relevant.

Angus beamed. “That’s great, sir! You get to come visit and we can hang out! There’s – well, there’s actually not that much to do on the moon, but there are some fun spots! The library’s really nice!”

“That sounds like a good time, Angus. I mean, honestly most things would after the months I’ve been having, but I’m looking forward to it.” Kravitz ruffled Angus’ hair, making him laugh and swat away Kravitz’ hand. “And I’ve got some good new stories, too.”

“So do I! Come on, sir, walk and talk, let’s go!” Angus trotted away down the hall, already chattering about his friends on the moon and the ‘deals warlock’ that apparently lived in the Fantasy Costco. He also started peppering Kravitz with questions about the Astral Plane, occasionally consulting a page of his notebook covered in notes and questions written in careful, densely-packed handwriting. Kravitz followed, smiling as he tried to keep up – he didn’t think this was going to be a bad way to spend time at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it!!! It's done! There may or may not be an epilogue to come, so watch this space, but for now I'm marking it complete. There is /definitely/ an idea or two rattling around in my mind about a oneshot or two set in the same canon. We'll see how that shakes out.
> 
> Also Angus just exudes a field of potent endearment. I think that's the only explanation for why in-universe and out everybody loves him.


End file.
